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Sunday, November 01, 2015

Walmart is amping up pressure on suppliers to cut costs — this won't turn out well

According to a Reuters report last week, Walmart (including its Sam's Club division) is continuing to put the squeeze on suppliers, as the company tries to offset rising costs due to increases in wages, e-commerce investments, and store improvements. Walmart recently warned that its earnings would decline by as much as 12 percent in its next fiscal year — sending its stock price down by 10 percent, which wiped out more than $21 billion in shareholder wealth.

"There might be unpleasant conversations but ultimately we want to do right by our suppliers because we want to create strategic relationships," Sam's Club spokesman Bill Durling said, as quoted in the article. "We want them to be along with us for the ride as we continue to grow."

But if Walmart's true desire is to create strategic relationships with suppliers, its actions don't reflect it, as this interaction highlighted in the article illustrates: 


Sam's Club's buyers summoned major vendors to meetings and told them a "cost gap analysis" showed they should be delivering at a lower price, and demanded millions of dollars in discounts on future purchases, according to emails reviewed by Reuters and interviews with suppliers and consultants involved in the talks.

Unlike in prior talks, which featured give and take, vendors were told they could not ask questions at the meetings, with queries to be handled later via email [emphasis mine], according to suppliers and consultants involved in or briefed on the meetings.


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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Vendors should ban together and just walk away. If enough do this, maybe Walmart will change it's arrogant ways. We need more competition in the marketplace. Walmart is, in general bad for business.

JoeAlbero said...

7:25, I can tell you that when I had my manufacturing company I was approached by WalMart and Home Depot. It was an incredible learning experience dealing with both of these companies. Fortunately I had already had experience dealing with some of the biggest companies in the World but let me assure you, what Home Depot and WalMart wanted was absolutely ridiculous.

Remember Lights of America in Home Depot or Lampi? Both of these companies went belly up because of the demands these large companies subjected the manufacture to. Not only did they already demand extremely low prices, they wanted no questions asked return policies on ANYTHING.

I spoke with the owner of one of the companies mentioned above and told them, IT'S NOT WORTH IT. However, all they saw was the millions upon millions of guaranteed income from these large contracts. They all went to the Bank with the contracts and expanded their businesses to be able to fill these massive orders. In no time the returns started coming in and the losses started piling up.

Now these companies are asking for even further discounts, BITE ME! I was smart enough and experienced enough to know to stay very far away from these deals. Do you people actually think if you buy a John Deere riding mower from one of these box stores you are actually getting the same quality mower you'd get if you went to a John Deere Dealership??? Absolutely Not!

If these store continue to demand lower prices and guarantees, you'll see many more manufacturing companies in the United States going out of business, trust me on that one. It's a shame so many American manufacturers are so desperate. Hence why you are seeing more and more items made in China and elsewhere.

Anonymous said...

Awwwww the billionares will be short a million on there weekly pay checks screw them.

Anonymous said...

We call that Greed and i bet the small businesses learrned a lesson greed greed greed.

Anonymous said...

The same goes for contractors who do work for them,they use these national contractor call centers expecting you to ride an hour away to put a 25 dollar part on for 50 dollars.

Anonymous said...

Joe, your comment here is dead on! Wal Mart is big enough that it can contract with Samsung, RCA (if they still exist) and any other company to manufacture a product, whether it be a TV, Lawn Mower or whatever, and do it with inferior equipment or components. And they will strong arm them in to doing it

Anonymous said...

BRING back small business and that will get rid of the corporate giants, BUT first you have to get rid of the CORRUPT politicians who gave away our jobs.

lmclain said...

Look, when a family is down to their last 175 BILLION dollars, SOMEBODY has to make a sacrifice. It just won't be anyone named "Walton".
Not a single individual in any of their families will ever have to work. Ever. For generations.
And it still ISN'T ENOUGH for them.
Keep cheering.

Anonymous said...

They did this to Land o Lakes American deli cheese. They said to bring the cost down, so they LOL did. Now the cheese is gross.
This cheese is sold everywhere, not just walmart. We shop at Giant.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I did my 'cost gap analysis' too, and the result was to drive right past Walmart and go somewhere else. If what they sell is crap because of their demands on vendors, and I have to buy replacements continually, I'm much better off going elsewhere and buying from somebody who has the sense to stock decent stuff.

After what they've done to America and it's manufacturing base (and to you and me), I'll enjoy watching Walmart shrivel and die.

Anonymous said...

Sam walton was Never likse this he is rolling in his grave.

Anonymous said...

Yep, and the contractor has to supply that $25 part, wait to be paid 30 days or more, pay taxes on the gross, plus insurance and overhead...then hope like hell the national
doesn't come up with some excuse not to pay.